


The Secrets That You Keep

by A_New_World_To_Be_Won



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, I think?, Multi, There is a fire escape, also courfeyrac is very drunk, and he wants to propose but SHHH, i guess it applies, thats not a major plot point so it's fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 19:32:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15691953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_New_World_To_Be_Won/pseuds/A_New_World_To_Be_Won
Summary: Les Mis Ladies Week Day 8: Midnight/Friendship"Everyone is drunk. This isn’t unusual for Cosette’s friend group, especially at a party hosted by Courfeyrac. However, tonight everyone is somehow drunker than usual."





	The Secrets That You Keep

**Author's Note:**

> A story based on a prompt for Les Mis Ladies Week 2018! (I apologize in advance if it's bad- I just found the prompt list a few days ago and didn't really have a lot of time to write it.)

Everyone is drunk. This isn’t unusual for Cosette’s friend group, especially at a party hosted by Courfeyrac. However, tonight everyone is somehow drunker than usual. 

The party had started off tame, with a few bottles of liquor here and there and a game of Spin the Bottle. Things had escalated once Enjolras and Grantaire had, in the words of Bahorel, “gotten their shit together,” and now… Cosette looks around. Enjolras and Grantaire are engaged in a makeout session that is bordering on pornographic in one corner. She looks away quickly, face burning. Everyone else is occupied, whether they’re dancing (well, it’s really grinding), or are passed out on the sofa (Marius has a very low alcohol tolerance). 

Cosette doesn’t drink. She never has. It’s not for any particular reason, she just doesn’t like the taste of alcohol, the way it burns going down, the way too much of it makes you do things you regret. That’s why she is currently the only one even remotely sober, and is having a grand time watching everyone else make complete and utter fools of themselves.

“Co- Cosette,” Courfeyrac slurs. “Dance with me?” He extends a hand. Cosette laughs and shakes her head, and Courfeyrac looks extremely offended. “Why not?”

“You’re very, very drunk, and I don’t make it a habit to dance with drunk people.”

“But look at my ass,” Courfeyrac says, and shakes his bottom. “It’s a nice ass.”

“It’s a lovely ass,” Cosette agrees, “but you’re still drunk.” Courfeyrac sighs and seems to give up, looking over towards Combeferre.

“Combeferre’s pretty hot,” he says, and Cosette nods. “Maybe  _ he’ll  _ dance with me.”

“He probably will,” she says. “You guys are dating after all.”

“Oh yeah,” Courfeyrac says, a smile lighting up his face. “Okay. Bye, Cosette!” he yells, and makes his way over to Combeferre, only tripping twice. Cosette curls up in an armchair, watching everyone. Everyone is laughing a little too loudly and talking a little too fast, and she suddenly feels very alone. The room feels stuffy and hot, and she wishes she were outside, anywhere but in this loud, crowded room. She gets up from the chair and is about to walk to the door, aiming to take a quick walk around the block and clear her head, when she spies the fire escape through a window. She smiles and pulls it open. 

Cosette climbs out the window onto the fire escape, letting the wind whip at her hair and pull strands loose from her topknot. She looks around, and can just make out the silhouette of another person- Eponine. She’s sitting on the steps of the fire escape, wearing a burgundy tube top and dark blue skinny jeans, paired with black Doc Martens. She’s staring absently off into the distance, occasionally taking sips from the red plastic cup by her feet. She doesn’t seem to notice Cosette, who is curling into the corner of the fire escape, pressing her back against the brick of the apartment building, tipping her head back to stare at the sky. She wants to look out over the city, enjoy the view given to her by Courfeyrac and Combeferre’s tenth-floor apartment, but her gaze keeps drifting over to Eponine.

Jehan has always said that Cosette reminds them of the sun, with her long golden hair and green eyes that are always glowing with happiness, and the way she seems to emanate radiance and light from her very being. However, if Cosette is the sun, then Eponine is the moon, because in this light she looks almost ethereal. Her dark hair is draped over her bare shoulders, moonlight making it shine silver, and her face is made into something almost dangerous looking the way the moonlight throws it into shadow, softened somewhat by her eyes, big and dark. Cosette just looks at her for a little while, watching the way her hair shifts as she tips her head back to drink from her cup- until Eponine turns her head and is looking right at her. Cosette jumps to her feet.

“Sorry- I can go inside if you want-” Eponine shakes her head, placing her cup back by her feet. 

“No, it’s fine. It’s a free country, right?”

“Enjolras would say otherwise,” Cosette quips, trying to lessen the tension somewhat. She and Eponine have never really been close, despite Cosette’s efforts. Eponine gives a wry smile.

“You can sit here if you want,” she says, gesturing next to her to the space on the step. “The view is amazing.” Cosette nods, and walks over to sit next to Eponine on the step. A breeze ruffles their hair, mixing the strands together, and Cosette wishes she had worn something with longer sleeves. 

“It’s too cold for summer,” Cosette says, trying to warm herself. Eponine laughs.

“Try drinking. It’ll warm you right up.” 

“Drinking isn’t really my thing,” Cosette replies, and Eponine looks at her, but says nothing. 

They sit like that for a while, Cosette hugging her legs and just looking out at the city. She does this often at her own apartment, just sits on her window seat and gazes out the window at the cars and lights. Sometimes Marius joins her, but she prefers to do it by herself. There’s no pressure to talk or to keep things interesting when it’s just her- she can just exist.

But she doesn’t feel any pressure with Eponine, who seems just as content to sit and stare off into the distance as Cosette does. But… does she really? Cosette has gotten pretty good at reading people over the years, and Eponine is not coming across as calm and content. Her jaw is clenched, and she’s sitting rigidly upright, gaze fixed straight ahead. 

“Are you okay?” Cosette asks softly. Eponine whips her head to face her.

“I’m fine.” Cosette resists the urge to roll her eyes, because Eponine is very obviously not fine. But she’s learned that when people say things like that, it’s best to be quiet and let them come to terms with their feelings on their own.

“Why do you care?” Eponine says suddenly, and it’s not rude or condescending- it’s a genuine question. Cosette doesn’t know how to respond. Why  _ wouldn’t  _ she care? 

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” she says instead. Eponine opens her mouth, then closes it again. Cosette frowns. “Aren’t we?” she repeats, and Eponine laughs humorlessly. 

“I don’t fucking  _ know,  _ Cosette- why would we be?”

“Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Because all I ever do is be an ass to you and your boyfriend!” Eponine yells. “I’m a bitch to you and to him and I always feel so guilty afterwards but I can never stop because it just  _ isn’t fair.  _ I feel like everyone has someone, and I don’t.”

“That’s not true,” Cosette says, trying to think of someone in their friend group who is single. “Isn’t Bahorel single?”

“He’s dating Feuilly now,” Eponine replies drily. “Jehan’s dating  _ Montparnasse,  _ of all people, and Enjolras and Grantaire finally got their shit together and Courfeyrac wants to propose to Combeferre- shit, don’t tell him I told you that- and Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta are just gross with their adorableness, and then there’s you and Marius, the golden couple.” Eponine takes a deep breath, and continues. “I just feel alone,” she says quietly, and the words have a melancholy sound to them, like they are words that have been thought too many times to count, but never said. 

“You’re not,” Cosette says. “You’re not, I promise. And don’t contradict me, because I know how you feel.”

“How could  _ you,  _ of all people,  _ possibly  _ know how I feel?” 

“When I first moved here,” Cosette begins, “I didn’t know anyone. At work, I would always just blend into the background and not talk to anyone. I had nobody to talk to. But then I went to a bar one night, not to drink, just to- I don’t know. Meet people, I guess. And I just stood in the back of the bar for what felt like hours, watching other people have a good time- until Courfeyrac came up to me and told me that his friend hadn’t stopped looking at me since I’d come in.” She smiles, remembering. “If I hadn’t gone to the bar that night, or if Marius hadn’t gone to the bar that night, we never would have met. It’s all just a series of coincidences. You’ll find someone. And even if you don’t, you have us.” Eponine is quiet, and Cosette worries that she said the wrong thing. But then she speaks again.

“You’re wearing a watch.” Cosette blinks, confused.

“Sorry?”

“You’re wearing a watch. The nice kind. Nobody wears watches anymore, and if they do, they’re not  _ real  _ watches, they’re just digital.” She runs a finger over the silver casing of Cosette’s watch. “It’s really pretty.” She withdraws her finger back hastily. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you,” Cosette says, smiling softly. Eponine gives her a tentative smile back. “Why aren’t we friends?” Cosette blurts suddenly. 

“According to you, we are.”

“You know what I mean. I tried to get closer to you, but you kind of just… brushed me away. I tried again, and you did it again, so I just stopped trying.” Eponine sighs.

“I was jealous of you.” She stares at her hands, picking at her nail polish. Cosette waits for more, but Eponine seems like she’s done talking.

“Why?” Cosette asks. Eponine shakes her head, giving Cosette a half smile.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“It’s midnight,” Cosette responds, looking at her watch. “It’s tomorrow. Tell me.” Eponine takes a deep breath.

“I used to love Marius,” she says, staring off into the distance. “Or I thought I did. But he didn’t- he  _ couldn’t _ \- see me as more than a friend. So I just… stopped. So I guess it wasn’t really love then, if I could stop so easily. But then he started to date you and… I was jealous. Not of you, and not of him. Just of the  _ bond  _ you have. It’s special Cosette, it really is.”

Cosette is quiet. She’d known that Eponine had had feelings for Marius at some point, but she’d had no idea just how much those feelings had impacted Eponine. 

“I… thank you. But you can have bonds like that without dating someone. You and Grantaire have something like that- I can see how much you guys care about each other, no matter how much you try to hide it.” Eponine sighs.

“I guess,” she says quietly. “But I just want to have that bond with more people.”

“So can we be friends, then?” Cosette asks, and Eponine looks her square in the eye and smiles.

“I would love to.” 

They sit on the fire escape for the rest of the night, watching the sun rise and silently marveling at the colors- the red bleeding into orange bleeding into yellow. They look at each other and they smile, a silent promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading!! I really hope you liked it!! This is my first time writing from Cosette's POV and it was really interesting for me, so let me know what you thought in the comments!!


End file.
